The misfolded proteins responsible for a fatal neurological disease in deer have a twist. The first detailed structure of an infectious prion that causes chronic wasting disease, or CWD, reveals features that could help guide vaccine development or explain why the disease has not yet made the leap to humans, researchers report Oct. 24 in … Read more
DENVER — A drug found in nearly every medicine cabinet could be a treatment for a rare genetic disease. Ibuprofen can help children with mutations in a gene called MAN1B1suggests a study on fruit flies. Geneticists Clement Chow of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City reported the results Nov. 6 at the annual … Read more
A truck full of antimatter would make for a seriously epic road trip. And scientists are now one step closer to transporting the substance in vehicles. Scientists at the European laboratory CERN have demonstrated the ability to transport a cloud of subatomic particles on board a truck, using protons as a support for their antimatter … Read more
Dust pollution is known to contribute to asthma and heart and lung disease. But dust blowing from the Great Salt Lake in Utah can cause an additional unwanted shock. Metals in dust and sediments around the Great Salt Lake are more reactive than dust from nearby lake beds, researchers report in November. Atmospheric Environment. When … Read more
Having an extra trained professional by your side can make a pregnancy easier. Among a group of pregnant individuals covered by Medicaid, those who used a doula in addition to a medical team had a lower risk of having a cesarean section or preterm birth than those who did not, researchers reported in November. American … Read more
At the age of 12, Tracy Slatyer felt sorry for a book. She read a newspaper article about how many people were buying A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking. “But then … nobody was reading it,” she says. “People were just leaving it on their coffee tables.” Determined to right this wrong, Slayer … Read more
Extreme Climate Survey Scientific news is collecting questions from readers about how to navigate our planet’s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? In just 60 hours, the NHC predicted that PTC9 would intensify at a record pace, going from winds of … Read more
Imagine Victorian London, but its skies are filled with airplanes. Steam robots crowd the streets, mingling with people in hats and cloaks. This kind of retrofuturistic mash-up is the fantasy realm of steampunk, a genre of literature, film, and other creative media. Theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern sees her specialty, the field of quantum thermodynamics, … Read more
Naloxone has saved thousands of lives by reversing opioid overdoses. But its success depends on someone nearby who can administer the medicine quickly (SN: 5/3/24). Many people are alone when they overdose. A new implant may one day solve this problem. Inserted under the skin and powered by a battery, the device can detect the … Read more
Electric vehicles promise to help us move away from fossil fuels, but they present a new problem: how to get enough lithium that EV batteries require (SN: 5/7/19). Materials scientist Chong Liu of the University of Chicago has some ideas. Existing technology can only extract lithium from sources with highly concentrated ions, such as solid … Read more